Published 6:30 am, Saturday, February 19, 2005

A week later, Kathryn overheard Eugene say to a 94-year-old customer: "OK, Mrs. Sheffield, I fired the gun, and it works just fine. I put some fresh ammo in it, and here's your old ammo."

Hoepfl explained to van der Pol that suspicious men had been coming around Sheffield's house, and she wanted to protect herself.

"Part of your job is to help customers with other things, too," he told her.

Hoepfl picked the van der Pols over other prospective buyers because he believed they'd take care of his employees and customers. Kathryn van der Pol said she realizes the value of what she and her husband now possess: A revered, 59-year-old family business.

On Friday, the van der Pols tossed a farewell party for Eugene and his wife, Virginia Hoepfl, who also worked at the garage in Garden Oaks.

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The event served as a passing of the torch from one mom and pop owner to another.

After getting orders from his doctor last year to retire because of his health, Hoepfl hired a business broker and met several potential buyers.

"One wanted to get rid of all the employees and start out fresh," Hoepfl recalled, while the van der Pols — he's a mechanic and she's a former Latin teacher — "seemed like a real nice couple who want to give all the employees a chance to prove themselves.

"I didn't want to just slap it over to somebody and have them take advantage of my customers," he said.

Attitude not unusual

Hoepfl's attitude is not unusual among people giving up their business, said
Jeff Jones
, a partner with Certified Business Brokers,

Typically, sellers of a business think about more than the bottom line, Jones said. They are emotionally invested in its survival: "It's their baby."

Don Piercy, who brokered the sale for CBB, described the garage as a museum and said the van der Pols are thrilled to have one of the oldest auto shops in town.

Others starting out in business prefer a shiny new place, Piercy said. Something like the Hoepfl's garage "would turn their stomachs."

But, he noted: "Its strength is its age."

The van der Pols are cautious about making changes, although Hoepfl said of Sybren van der Pol, "He's spiffed the place up some."

Little tossed out

It's hard to imagine the place was once more cluttered than it is now. Little seems to have been tossed out since the garage opened. There is a valve adjustment tool for 1948-1952 Chrysler cars and a clunky old machine that tested spark plugs ages ago.

The office, too, is crammed with relics. The Hoepfls, and now the van der Pols, use a 1928 cash register that only tabulates as high as $999.99.

If the bill is higher, "you just ring up $500, $500, $500, until you get the total," Hoepfl explained.

Eugene's father, Adolf Hoepfl, founded the garage in 1946 with money he'd borrowed from his father, who was a farmer.

"I had everything in debt but my wife," said Adolf, 86. He journeyed from the family farm near the Lavaca County town of Moulton to Kansas City, Mo., to learn auto repair.

He built part of his garage on North Shepherd with pine that grew on the property.

At age 14, Eugene began working for his father, driving the wrecker, pulling radiators and fixing brakes.

In the mid-1950s, Adolf told his son to learn to fix air conditioners, and it became his specialty. Eugene and Virginia took over in 1985.

Keeping up with new technology was a challenge, recalled Eugene Hoepfl, who would attend classes at San Jacinto College.

"We were up to date," he said, but, referring to van der Pol and the mechanic he brought on, he added, "their younger minds will be able to accept the new technologies."

The Hoepfls befriended many of their customers. Their granddaughter, Victoria Muhl, grew up in the office and is better for it because of her relationships with customers, Virginia believes.

Muhl, 14, recalled as a first-grader reading The Big Golden Book ofFairy Tales to a woman in the waiting room.

Customer Beryl Mack said that before she and her husband, Ray Mack, went on a long drive, Hoepfl would check their car and make sure they carried extra parts.

Foolproof plan

The Hoepfls had a foolproof business plan that "you don't learn at Harvard or Wharton," Mack said.

It was one that many businesses relied on years ago: If you had an insurance agent, for example, "he came to your house and became your friend." Such a close bond between business owner and client rarely exists today, she said.

Mack has had good experiences with the van der Pols since they took over in November. Still, she said, as she witnesses the departure of the Hoepfls, "You sort of hold your breath."

The new and retiring owners possess different personalities. The Hoepfls have an outgoing, salt-of-the-earth charm: Virginia has a sunny nature and radiant smile. Eugene also is warm and friendly.

Quiet and steady

The van der Pols are more reserved. Sybren projects a quiet, steady, intelligence. Kathryn, too, is thoughtful and curious.

The van der Pols do know how to throw a party. In the garage Friday, they set up tables, each with a white tablecloth and flowers. Guests dined on catered barbecue, laughed and snapped pictures.

Like Virginia Hoepfl previously, Kathryn van der Pol will work at the garage every day, doing bookkeeping and waiting on customers.

A high school Latin teacher for 24 years, Kathryn van der Pol had retired to write short stories and narrative fiction, but when her husband bought the garage, she joined him.

She has no regrets. Adolf Hoepfl & Son Garage — they won't change the name — would give any writer plenty to work with, she said.

Singing the gospels

One customer who could find his way into one of her stories is
John Williams
. A man in his 80s, he has a pocket watch hanging from his overalls. He's retired from the railroad. Recently, he leaned back in his chair in the waiting room and, in a deep baritone voice, sang hymns for the Hoepfls and van der Pols.

Another customer she met in the short time that they've owned the garage is a retired schoolteacher, Irene Mathis. Van der Pol picked Mathis up at her home to bring her back to the garage. The woman invited her in for a tour of her immaculate home, where she had baked cookies just for her and Sybren.

On the way back, Mathis told her how she became a teacher: Her father told her that she could either go to college, work in his dry cleaners or pick cotton.

She chose college.

Hearing the stories

Hoepfl's garage has about 2,200 people as a customer base, and they should make more than a book for Kathryn van der Pol.